an update.

i've thought over dozens of posts in the months since i last posted. sporadic moments i envisioned in word form. none of those blips led me to actually writing anything down. it seems i've taken on the attitiude that my memory will serve me well, and that those moments will be there when i'm ready to sit down and write.  living them out and having time to reflect on the full picture - summer -  was my priority this year. just be-ing.

.

now, we're well into the end of summer. i'm slowing down. i'm wanting to write. that's weird for me. so, here we go. let's start with a general outline of my life this summer.

• Work: I had the opportunity to work a few different jobs this summer. It has suited my lifestyle and love of being involved in the arts, being outside and being creative perfectly. I have continued working with a national film organization that programs and hosts film festivals throughout the year. I have been working with them since 2008 and continue to work part-time during the film festivals. It's a joy to work with this bunch. Arts and culture are my home. Yay!  In addition to the festivals, which primarily run during the evenings, I have been working with a gardener again this spring, summer and fall. I have loved learning and executing amazing results with the team I was with. Having my hands in the dirt all day works for me, as it turns out. The satisfaction and creative fulfillment I took with me from each job well done and clients' reactions fueled me daily. So that's what I've been up to work-wise this summer and fall. 
• Fun: I've taken on a project this summer organizing some art and collectibles from around the globe spanning over 90 years. These collectables are things a friend's family are ready to part with. This family originated in England, came to Canada and the dad/grandfather traveled globally with a major shoe company as the main shop designer and creative merchandiser. You can only imagine what I have seen, held, photographed, catalogued and googled. Amazing pieces of history, culture. It's a dream project that I am actually very behind on. I'm currently in the research phase; 175 objects is a lot of googling. My next step is to find out some additional info from the family on origin, the stories behind the objects. (Look at me using my university degree! Yahoo!) I'll be visiting some local dealers all Storage Wars style to authenticate and market to buyers.Very fun indeed. I'll be sure to share some of the objects and their stories as I get further into the research.
• Vacation: We went to Portugal in August for 20 days. It was amazing, in so many ways. Being in Europe in the summer is fantastic. Getting to know my husband's family, and in turn my husband, was nothing but fulfilling and full of love. The days along the coast are long, hot and cool at night. The food fresh and prepared with love.The breezes off the water cool the tiled and shuttered cities down. No rain for 20 days. Days at the beach? 10 or 12? Days in the mountains, 3. Amazing, all of it. I have 900 pictures to go through. Once I have an edited version I will for sure be posting a slideshow here. So many stories. Stay tuned.
• Pets: we have a new one. I know. The Bub went to the pet store for pet food (on my birthday) and came home with a girl kitten. That brings the grand total to 2 (old) dogs and 3 (young) cats, pushing us very close to 'Those People" status. The new kidden is already going outside and killing anything cute within a 1 house radius. Her total so far? This week? 1 mouse, 2 birds, a chipmunk and a this morning? a HUMMINGBIRD. The embodiment of beauty and wonderment in nature, left on my doorstep, chest open wide, eyes pinched shut, pointy beak bent back. I have dubbed May the devil kitten and she's not allowed out until the snow flies. I can't handle it. I don't even kill spiders. There we go. Pets. 
• Creativity: my focus has been outside, on my gardens. I've been learning to prune and loving every second of it. Working on expanding and cleaning out my own gardens is a huge chore but I find the reward of seeing the final product so worth it.  I recently took a client's overgrown evergreen shrub that was going to be pulled out due to its overpowering state on the patio and made it a focal point by removing the overgrowth and pruning it back into a bonsai shape. It was like sculpting. I'm addicted. That being said, all the furniture fun, painting fun, DIY upcycle goodtime fun has been literally thrown to the side. My studio has become the storage room for a few months and OMG it's making me twitch. I'm looking forward to getting at reorganizing and purging a lot in there once the snow flies. For now, I might aim to get a few pieces I've promised people done and hopefully that will get me back on track creativity wise. I'm such an ebb and flow person. All or nothing. 

So that's a small glimpse into what i have been up to. I feel like I can now start to share some of the individual images and stories from my summer as I go forward into fall. That might be fun.

hope you are well,

♥ leel

monday morning madness.

well, hello there! happy monday!

things are weird; i thought i'd share.

it was sort of mid to late morningish. i should have been up and functional like the rest of the world. i was not.

the dogs were in their beds on the floor in our room, i was slightly conscious. off goes our god awful sound of a doorbell. the hounds take off like bats out of hell, tripping over each other, yipping and yapping like lunatics, sliding down the hardwood stairs only to bark and jump at the window beside the door like the complete assholes they can be.

i'm up! my crazy ponytail's askew and my bedhead is out of control. i'm wearing a blue v-neck t-shirt and pj pants have roosters on them. no bra. omg.

the door bell goes again! off i go, not caring any longer what i'm wearing since i think i know what's going on; it's probably a kid from the school yard behind our house. i can hear it's recess. it must just be a ball in our back yard they need retrieved. this happens at least once a week in the spring and fall. i just need the dogs to stop! barking! already!

i crack open the inside door with the 2 maniacs trying to nudge open the outer glass door with their pointy little faces and see a man standing with 2 kids behind him. ok, teacher on recess duty and kids who lost ball. standard, here we go. i say through the glass, motioning to the backyard, "is there a ball in the yard?" and he says "no". oh geeze. i'm going to have to open the door and converse with this man. AND not let the dogs get out AND not him get a whiff of me AND keep my arm across my chest. awesome.

.

i manage to slide the dogs out of my path with one leg while cracking open the door with the other. i say hello, distracted by dogs. and so the conversation begins.

mumble mumble... i was trying to get into your neighbours house, he died and i can't get in.

my neighbour died? which neighbour? (struggling to comprehend, thinking of young father living beside us)

yah, two or three weeks ago, he lived 3 down, Mr.HP. i drove down to see about buying his land he had that i used to hunt on, he and his wife were up there last year. i guess he got prostate cancer. i'm trying to find someone who knows about it and i can't get in. do you know anything about it?

Mr.HP died? I didn't know that he had cancer.

yah, it was two or three weeks ago, you didn't know? he has a wife in one of the nursing homes over there (points). he lived here for like 35 years - how long have you lived here? um, 8 years? yah, well he lived here for 35 years.

(in my mind i'm thinking eaaaasy big feller, you can't even remember how long ago it was he died, don't know where his wife resides, and want to buy his land? BACK OFF.)

yes. i knew him, well, actually my ex did. he used to go flying with him. that was a long time ago, i haven't spoken to Mr.HP for years. i saw him out rarely but would see him drive by with his wife when he would take her out for a drive from the nursing home.

yah, well he died two or three weeks ago and i don't know who to contact about his land and can't get into his house.

(pause. i look to two kids standing behind him on my walkway. ???)\

have you talked to any other neighbours? the one who lived closer, they might know something more.

nobody else is home. (except me, the lazy kid, i think)

i'm sorry to hear he died.

thanks, well, i guess i'll try the neighbours on the other side then.

that's probably your best bet. they knew him, i think.

well, thanks.

no problem. thanks for letting me know.

off he goes, leather bomber jacket done up tight to combat the chill of this day. i think about Mr. PH and how i'm sad i didn't know for 3 weeks that he had died. he and his wife have no children, no relatives. we was from germany, she austria. they met at the university in the 60's when he was a recent immigrant doing construction and she a music teacher. he was quiet about his past, owned airplanes, could fix anything and his wife was in a home suffering from dementia.

that's about all i know.

i knew him briefly when my ex and i bought this place. he came down the street with questions about permits as we took on renovating our house. what started off as confrontation soon became friendship for us, more for my ex since the man did piss me off more than i like to admit. soon after my ex and i broke up we stopped speaking. he was still friends with my ex and remained in contact with Mr.PH as of the last time i ran into him, a few months ago at his workplace. (awkward)

look up to 2 kids faces: hi there!? is there a ball in my yard you need?

yah, a blue one. have you seen it?

let me get some clothes and shoes on. i'll check.

close door.

and so my day began. it was weird. there was a line-up at my door. 

so now i'm going to clean my house. my mom is on a school break and she is on her way over to help! and she's bringing coffee. *dance* have a great one, lovelies.

♥ leel

an announcement of the amazing kind

*clears throat and twists rings nervously*

thank you for stopping by today! it's an exciting day for me, and i'm glad you stopped by to peek in on the official announcement i have to make.

let's go back a bit first: while i've known this little secret for a while, i was ever leary about uttering the words out loud until i knew FOR SURE that this was really happening. i mean, who wants to be the kid who says "hey guys, i made the team" only to find they were cut the day before the jerseys were even handed out? NOT THIS KID. also, i have lived and worked enough in life to know that nothing is done until it's actually DONE done. you know this. you get it.

so what's my news? well, to me it's kinda a big deal. i'm going to be in a book! well, not ME, but one of my creations and designs is! it's a style and home design book. it's coming out in the fall. it's authored by none other than her royal style majesty Grace Bonney, creater of the one and only Design*Sponge website, it's the Design Sponge at Home book!

can you stand it?!

so, there was a call a long time ago for projects, i replied with a couple of photos and a link to a blog post and now, one of MY Vintage Suitcase Tables (I won't tell you which one) is going to be in the Design Sponge at Home book. i am so flattered and excited and still convinced it's not really happening that it feels weird to even be typing this out. ANYWAY. the book comes out in September, Grace is heading out on a huge booktour very soon and can already be pre-ordered online.

here's some info from the publisher:

Grace Bonney created her daily Web site Design*Sponge as an antidote to the fussy (and expensive) shelter magazines of her mother’s generation. The New York Times has dubbed the site, with its 60,000 daily readers, “Martha Stewart Living for millennials.”

DESIGN*SPONGE at Home is Bonney’s definitive guide to home décor for her fellow design sponges—those house-proud young homeowners and renters who adore soaking up design ideas and using them as inspiration to decorate and personalize their own homes. This design compendium contains peeks of 75 real-life interiors, where the décor was culled from flea markets and the owners’ imaginations, as well as more than 100 projects (with detailed instructions) from a table made out of abandoned chair legs to a butterfly dome.

Packed with hundreds color photographs and illustrations, this beautiful book includes a decorating basics section with tutorials on everything from stripping and painting furniture to hanging wallpaper and doing your own upholstery. Along the way, Bonney—whose enthusiasm and joy in her subject is infectious—teaches the reader the principles of decorating and collecting, empowering them to create beautiful homes of their own.

Grace Bonney is the creator of Design*Sponge, a daily Web site dedicated to home and product design. A native of Virginia Beach, Grace has worked as a contributing editor at publications like House & Garden, Domino, and Craft Magazine. In 2006 Grace founded the Design*Sponge Biz Ladies series, a traveling event designed to connect women running their own design-based businesses with free legal, financial, and marketing advice.

so a big thank you to Grace, for including me in the book and teaching me my ideas are worth looking at, for answering every e-mail and tweet i sent asking if i had been edited out yet with a swift positive response, and for not editing me out in the end. thank you Grace. you have no idea what this means to me.

also, to my interweb tribe: the comments and feedback and e-mails on any thing i post here is what fuels me. i appreciate any glance at the site, your comments are gold. thank you. thank you. thank you.

♥ leel